It has dawned on me recently that I spend more time with the fictional characters I write about than almost everyone who lives in the real world. Sometimes those characters disappoint with the things they do, but I don’t hold that against any of them. They are who they are, for better or worse. Now that I’m in the third of what will be four Thomas Pichon novels, I’m getting wistful about some of these friends, because I’m soon going to have to say goodbye to a few of them. On the other hand, there are new friends/characters coming along to take their place.